Libraries

WIU Library Faculty Pass Open Access Resolution

Open access resolution

Open Access Week is October 18th through October 24th this year. According to the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), Open Access Week, which is in its fourth year, is a global event to promote free, immediate, online access to research. In an effort to inform their colleagues of the benefits of publishing in Open Access, WIU Library Faculty passed an Open Access resolution. As part of the resolution, the Librarians are committing to try and publish their own research in Open Access journals or journals that allow authors to retain control over their scholarly research.

The resolution reads:

Open access to research and scholarship is important for scholarly communication. It enables the discovery and free use of information and promotes the development of new ideas. For that reason we pledge to:

Inform and discuss scholarly publication issues, including open access, copyright and license agreements and author rights, with WIU faculty, students and staff;

  • Encourage all faculty to publish their research in openly accessible journals whenever possible
  • Assist faculty who wish to make their research openly accessible by helping them identify potential open access publications and read, understand and amend copyright agreements
  • Make our own research openly and freely accessible by publishing in open access publications, with publishers that have adopted open access policies, allow authors to amend copyright agreements and/or retain copyright to or self-archive our publications
  • Give equal consideration to peer-reviewed articles published in open access journals during the PAA, tenure and promotion process

The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition has several publications about Open Access, Author Rights and a tool that can be used to develop an addendum to publisher's copyright statements so that authors can retain control over part or all of their work. In addition, the Libraries have developed a guide to information on open access and scholarly publishing at:

http://wiu.libguides.com/OpenAccess

If you are interested in learning more about Open Access publishing, please contact your Library Liaison directly. The complete list of liaisons by department can be found at https://www.wiu.edu/libraries/liaisons/liaisonsByDepartment.php.